What “licensed, bonded, and insured” actually means.

When a residential contractor says they're “insured,” they mean they carry Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance. If a plumber forgets to crimp a fitting and floods your kitchen, this is the policy that pays for the damage. It also covers injuries that happen to workers on your property, which otherwise can turn into a homeowner-liability problem.

Before any contractor starts work on your home, you have the right to ask for their Certificate of Insurance (COI), a one-page document from their insurer confirming active coverage. If a contractor hesitates, can't produce one, or asks you to “trust them,” don't let them start.

We don't make you ask. You'll get a copy of our current Certificate of Insurance together with the paperwork you sign off on before work starts, so you know we're covered before we pick up a tool.

Most homeowners see “bonded” and assume a bank is guaranteeing the quality of the work: that if the contractor walks off the job, someone else pays to finish it. On ten-million-dollar commercial construction sites, that's true. Those are project performance bonds. You're not getting one of those on a residential service job, and any company that implies otherwise is stretching the truth.

What “bonded” actually means in residential service is a Business Service Bond (sometimes called a Fidelity Bond). It has nothing to do with the quality of the work. It's a policy that reimburses you if an employee steals from your home.

If you believe an employee has taken something from your home, file a police report first. Once that's on record, contact the contractor's bonding company (they're legally required to disclose it) and file a claim to be reimbursed for what was taken.

We vet our team carefully, but we carry a Fidelity Bond anyway. You deserve that peace of mind when you're letting strangers into your home, no matter how carefully those strangers have been hired.

Holding a Class A Contractor License in Virginia isn't a matter of paying a fee. The state requires background checks, trade exams, and proof of financial stability (a minimum net worth). Because the state already verifies those things up front, Virginia doesn't require Class A contractors to carry individual performance bonds.

Instead, a portion of every Class A contractor's licensing fees feeds the Virginia Contractor Transaction Recovery Fund, a state-run pool of money that exists specifically to reimburse homeowners. If a licensed contractor takes your money and disappears, abandons a job halfway through, or violates building codes and refuses to fix them, this fund is what's there to make you whole.

If a licensed contractor abandons your job or does grossly improper work and refuses to make it right, the path is: file a complaint with the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR). If the contractor goes out of business or refuses to refund you, take them to local court. Once you have a judgment, submit it to the DPOR Recovery Fund, which can reimburse you up to $30,000.

We maintain our Class A license in good standing with DPOR (license #2705140868), along with our tradesman license (#2710033390) covering Master Plumbing, Master Gas Fitter, and Journeyman HVAC. Both are listed at the bottom of every page on this site and on every invoice. You can verify them at any time on the Virginia DPOR website.